The present invention relates generally to an information processing apparatus and method and a program storage medium, and more particularly, to an information processing apparatus and method and a program storage medium for setting preset recording to a recording apparatus by use of control information recorded on a program information providing apparatus.
Recently, system services (for example, iEPG (trademark)) have begun in which television programs are preset or programmed for recording by use of program preset recording sites on the Internet. In these preset recording systems, each user accesses a program preset recording site from his personal computer and operates a preset recording button corresponding to a desired television program to download a corresponding text file described with station name, program name, and program start and end times for example.
When the program start time comes, the personal computer selects a corresponding broadcasting channel by its tuner, compresses the received data by the MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group 2) standard for example, and records the compressed data to its hard disk for example. This allows each user to preset desired programs for recording only by performing necessary operations on the Internet without having to perform cumbersome operations hitherto required in preset recording programs.
However, the above-mentioned television program preset recording system services basically require a personal computer for using the services, barring generally widespread VCRs (Video Cassette Recorders), which are television program recording apparatuses, from accessing these services.